Sunday, January 27, 2013

"The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald's." - Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again (1975).Every town and village and crossroads and city has beautiful, or at least memorable, architecture of some kind -- most assuredly something more unique than the nearest McDonald's. Something beyond branding, transcending the Gestalt shorthand of Big Ben for London, La Tour Eiffel, Sacré-Cœur or the Moulin Rouge for the capital of France, the RenCen for Detroit. In Fort Worth, Texas, it's the lay of the land, and the way the rivers meander, or rather the named "forks" of the Trinity River, which sounds a whole lot cooler as el río Trinidad. There are good buildings, and public spaces, too, though here almost nothing standing dates tomore than a century ago, a disorienting fact that continues to boggle my mind. It's eerie. How about where you are, dear reader? Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?Today's Rune: Wholeness.

3 comments:

Erik I am pretty sure that you know the RenCen (or now known as GM World HQ) is actually the symbol of the final decline of Detroit. The thought at the time was a project to move Detroit away from the attitudes that caused the 67 riots and a uniting symbol. Instead it was being built just as the mass migration of the population was hitting peak.

No you know what Detroit's architectural Icon's are, both designed and built by Alfred Khan, the goddamned train depot and the even more damned Packard plant.

Hell there might not even be a Detroit on the map anymore in 10 years.

Erik, in my small hometown there stood a GIANT Paul Bunyan and Babe. They have somehow moved it from it's original spot to the 'downtown' area. I think that qualifies as old, in a new spot, borrowed from an old spot, and Babe the blue ox!!